The Falcons announced Tuesday that Weatherspoon will miss the entire 2014 season after suffering an Achilles tendon injury at practice.

"During Sean's run today with our medical staff, he suffered an injury," Falcons coach Mike Smith said. "We sent Sean to the doctor for some additional testing and evaluation and unfortunately the results showed that he ruptured his Achilles tendon.

"Sean had been working extremely hard to get back on the field, but regrettably he will miss the entire 2014 season. He will have a procedure done in the near future and we expect him to make a full recovery."

Weatherspoon, 26, had been working his way back from a knee injury that ended his 2013 season after Week 15. Injuries have become a recurring theme for Weatherspoon, he started last season on short-term injured reserve with a foot issue.

This an extremely tough blow for a shaky Falcons defense that was counting on Weatherspoon to bring some stability to the middle of the unit. The timing is particularly devastating for Weatherspoon, who is entering the final year of his contract.

meh, once you get past the hype, is it really that big of a loss? he was bound to get injured anyway, it was inevitable. its not like we just lost a pro bowler, Spoon was an overhyped average LB that rarely made impact plays. If he wasn't a 1st round pick I doubt he would still be on the team at this point. He has been completely underwhelming thus far in his career. Good thing we stocked up on LBs during the draft, at least now the guy that replaces him will get some extra experience in TC and OTAs.

I think Spoon is way better than just average when he's healthy. The dude runs a 4.5 40 and benched 225 36x. Those are things you can't coach. He's been playing outside too and I really wanted to see him be full time on the inside with that kind of speed and strength. He can shed blocks, get to the ball damn fast, and even get through holes to the QB with that kinda speed and strength, which is exactly what you want in and ILB.

It's irritating that he's obviously so freaking injury prone. But I think you're crazy to say he's just average and this isn't really a loss for us.

At least it wasn't during the season. Does it suck yes, did I like the guy yes. However at least now we won't be scrambling to fill holes now.

So very true. Has he even been fully healthy any season? No. It was inevitable that we'd get the injury notification and then be told that he is on course for a quick recovery only to not see him the rest of the season.

He hasn't missed that much time until last year. He started only 5 games played 11 as a rookie2nd year started 16 games had 4 sacks and 124 tackles3rd year 13 games 3 sacks 95 tacklesLast year missed 9 games

He isn't injury prone. He had some issues but an Achilles tear is a freak injury and not the symbol of years of issues. Also at 26 he is not on a decline. Injuries suck but the NFL is a very violent game. It takes a very rare player to make it through an entire season or career without injury.

This is too bad. We now have to rely on a rookie to start at one of the spots. This explains Shembo's move inside. I wonder how long they knew of this injury. Shembo has a similar skill set with speed and pursuit as Spoon.

We took him for granted before last year and lucked out with Bartu being good enough. I don't want to start another rookie, but there could be a good chance our starting inside LBs will be Worrilow (great but 2nd year) and Shembo (rookie) or worse Dent. I assume we might go out and grab another Vet LB.

Someone on the OMB made an interesting point. When that article came out that we did the super-secret force plate testing on Clowney prior to the draft, it also said we made all of our players undergo the tests. Did we draft 4 LB's because, well, partly at least, of what the force plate testing showed for Weatherspoon?